Episode 5 – Charlotte’s Literally on Fire
KARA
0:00
Welcome to this week's episode of the Queen's Pitch podcast. I'm Kara. And I'm Bridget and Charlotte's. Literally on fire. I don't know about
BRIDGET
0:07
fire, but they're on something, that's for
KARA
0:09
sure. So before we begin talking about this week, let's revisit a little bit of last week's match. I think you had some things you wanted to address. Well,
BRIDGET
0:19
I think after last week's game, we were all big mad, like I said. And I get it. And then I think I got onto the social media on Monday and Tuesday, and it just seems like the fans in the community started fighting each other, arguing. Tiffany I know there were some issues in the supporter section, some issues with them not playing Village at the end. And I know there was a lot going on. Just let's remember, everybody, that this is the first game of the season. No one's a better fan than another fan. No one's a real fan or fake fan. If you sit in the sports section, are you sitting 116 or 325 or 512? You're all the same fans. So on that note, let's just all get along. Let's go in the sandbox, start all over, play again. I'll help let you build a castle. I'll get you some water. But seriously, let's just all just get along, because this is getting ridiculous with the whole who's a fan, who's not a fan. We're all fans, or else we wouldn't be at these
KARA
1:13
games. And honestly, we want you all to be fans. That's what we're doing this for, right? Right. So let's leave the drama on the pitch. And speaking of drama on the pitch, let's talk about St. Louis then. There
BRIDGET
1:25
was lots of drama, and no lack
KARA
1:27
thereof. This was the first match at the new City Park Stadium for St. Louis. And so we knew this was going to be a big match up. And that's one of the reasons why, of course, the both teams came together. And so tempers and everything was already going to run high. We knew this. We knew going in. We already had an opener at our stadium. This was going to be another as Lady Daddy termed event. 1s For the team. Right. The result was, though, three to one, Charlotte loss. Again, this being a hard night to
BRIDGET
2:05
swallow, you want to say it was a beat down, but it wasn't a beat down,
KARA
2:08
right? Yeah. No, it was not a well, unless we beat ourselves again, charlotte sliding on fire in that way, not the way we wanted, as the chant goes. Bridget, do you have any faith favors you want to give out for the team this week, hard as it may be? 1s Yeah. This one was a tough one. I've been on a roller coaster since the game last night. Same. I couldn't go to the watch parties. I'm going to be honest. There were a lot of great watch parties around Charlotte. If you don't have somewhere to watch the games and don't have the Apple TV, feel free to go to any of the watch parties. There's probably one in every single bar. There's a lot of good supporter groups watch parties everywhere. I could not go to one because I can't watch the TV and not scream at it when the game's going. This was one that I texted you in the middle at the very beginning and said, I'm at the TV and I'm screaming just as loud as I was last week in the stadium. So that just the start of the game. Had me on edge. This new lineup that lady put out 1s had us all excited. Well, it had me excited. We were like, whoa, he did change
BRIDGET
3:12
it up. He listened to us and then the game started and we were like, oh, crap. What did he do? Why did he listen to us? We are not coaches. Okay, but 2s seriously, it really was like one of those things where we were like, oh, my gosh. What happened? Who's playing? What position? What's going on? So just from the get go, it was insane. I think the first 5 minutes to add my blood pressure up. I don't even think I needed a sun drop to keep going last night. It was that crazy. So I think that just that aspect of the game from the get go had me going. And then I was not really happy with Mr. Uncle, the ref, at that point. So I was taking all my frustrations out on him instead of the players. 2s It was pretty tough.
KARA
4:01
It was a tough match. I was shouting at my my TV, too. And it's one of those where it was just hard to stomach many things. And not only that, but when you're watching on TV, let me just say, I don't know where they're getting this thing that Apple has done pretty great because they screwed up the lineup. And something happened with my sound. Like, every single time I try to rewatch this match, I'm getting really weird alien sounds in some points, like, periodically. So I don't know why no one else like a
BRIDGET
4:34
chipmunk sound. Yeah,
KARA
4:36
so, I mean, not everything's perfect.
BRIDGET
4:38
Well, they had Shinoshiki as number 13, too. Did you see that? They had Shinoshiki down as number 13. I don't know if that was a charlotte, that was a
KARA
4:45
charge what? Error. But it
BRIDGET
4:47
happens. Okay, sorry. I didn't mean to call that out. Didn't even mean to call it out. Team, you'll be doing good in the admin office. To be fair, the
KARA
4:53
first five minutes we were going. 1s Where are they and where are they playing? And so you had to kind of figure that out, which we did, and we were like, okay, we we see what you're trying to do. Let's let's show us what what's happening. But it being such high attitudes and things, the game was a little bit like a ping pong match, especially for the first ten minutes. Sisaniega made a pretty good save at the beginning. And so, Bridget, how do you feel Pablo did this
BRIDGET
5:20
week? Yeah, Pablo is going to get my queen's favor again this week. I know this has been very odd for me. It's super odd. And I was actually sitting there last night and I was, like, looking at my daughter and I said, did you know how much I love Pablo? And she laughed at me. I'm obviously a big, huge Marks fan, but I even texted you and said, thank God Marks is not in this game tonight. No offense to George Marks. Still love you, still think you're going to be great. But we needed a goalkeeper that could at least keep his mind and his wits to himself, because I'm just saying there were some shots on that goal that Pablo that came at Pablo, that I was just like Pablo. And thankfully, Pablo did what he had to do. He had his shoes tied, double knotted, raise the roof on that one. He didn't get his water bottle when the play was going on. So I'm very impressed with Pablo. And if anyone deserves my favorite that I think Pablo is pretty much the only one I can really go for is saying that he didn't make any mistakes that cost us the game. When those goals went in, those were not Pablo's fault. Even that penalty kick, he did the best that he could. I
KARA
6:23
agree with you. I thought Pablo, 1s he could have easily. 1s Gotten into his head with these goals, with the atmosphere, with frustration, sheer frustration of the match itself. And, you know, he played solid and he was communicating really well and props to him, really proud of him and how he
BRIDGET
6:48
played. He might be winning the starting spot. I know a lot of Colleen people do not like hearing that, but I'm not, not mad at Pablo right now. Pablo is earning my heart and he might be doing the same for some other people on that team as well. I do hope cleaner hurry up and gets better comes back. The more competition the better. But way to go,
KARA
7:07
Pablo. Yeah, he had some great shot stopping tonight that I think St. Louis it wasn't that they weren't I mean, they were shooting certainly more than we did. And he was blocking really well. I mean, I know one of them came off. Two of them was head, but he was there. He was in front of stuff. He was getting the things he needed to get and the ones that didn't go in Charlotte, we did them all. That's all on us. That's on the team, right. I
BRIDGET
7:32
mean, you can't fault Pablo when you're on ditch, kicking the ball into goal or heading it. And even lady said sorry, but even lady said that. Even lady said, I forgot. He said you can't. You know, when he was talking about who to fought for that goal, he said bill should probably not have made that decision to hit it because that's Pablo's job. Yes,
KARA
7:53
he would have caught that. He would
BRIDGET
7:55
have caught that. And so I'm not going to, you know. 1s We can't fault Pablo for that, so we
KARA
8:00
can't. No, but I will say this for, for Tuiloma and maybe multiple times tonight, we saw mistakes. Right. There were very obviously Charlotte mistakes that led to goals and, you know, we're going to have those mistakes.
BRIDGET
8:17
It's going to happen. And it's early. It's early and we forget that we, we know our team should do so with L and we have such a high expectation. So when they do make the mistakes, we forget that they're human. Yeah. This
KARA
8:28
time last year, we were just like, oh, cool, we have a team we're playing. Yeah. Oh, we'd really like to win one, but, oh, I mean, we were just enthusiastic to be here and to be in it. And while I 100% get that, I wish we were St. Louis and what type of season we had, wish we would have had two matches basically gifted to us. But that's not what
BRIDGET
8:50
happened. Right. We didn't have teams wanting us to win. Yeah, we didn't have teams helping us win those games either. And if we remember last year, it's hard for us to remember because it was a year ago and we're getting older, so it's hard for me to remember yesterday. But last year we went three and we almost made the playoffs. And then with this year, with everybody and their brother pretty much making the playoffs, we still have 32 more games to go. And let's just not just get down on ours, though. It's super early. Right? On that note, though, let's go back to talking about Bill. Last week, we were giving Bill lots of praise. This week we're all like, oh, crap, yes.
KARA
9:26
Both Bill and Alanda got praised.
BRIDGET
9:28
Last week. Both of them got praised. And maybe we shouldn't praise people this week. Pablo, please do. Well, just because I'm calling your favor, this does not mean that the twilight is on. You need to be doing bad. Okay, but
KARA
9:39
should we just call them all out? Because I feel like I called out Yosuyak and he had a great game. I mean, way better than we've
BRIDGET
9:46
seen. I don't know. I think it was a crazy game. I think that the defense was I do think that with all of the excitement and everything going on in St. Louis and then the guys went in and had pressure that we have to win and we already know we're not good on the road. We do not have a great record on the road with that pressure on top of them. And then as soon as you make that first mistake, your mojo just kind of shifts. We see that in our kids games when our kids are out playing soccer, if something happens on their game, on the team scoots or does something or their team messes up, they all get in their head. And I think that that's one of those things, like La times. That's why we probably went out and got a mental coach. We need to work on the mental side of it. Our guys, at one point last night, I could see them in their heads and it was kind of scary. And I was like, oh, no. But at least we didn't do as bad as Liverpool or the Liverpool game. So I just want to say that we did not have to worry about that.
KARA
10:39
Yeah, I will say that there were moments at times, of course, we were in our own head. We were frustrated, we were getting angry, making stupid fouls because some people were so frustrated. And I get it. I was super frustrated. As a fan, if I could have gone out there and found some people, I'd have been happy to. 1s But again, that's what it's on the pitch for. And then that cost us some really stupid yellow cards. As you said when we were talking earlier, you get a yellow card and you get a yellow card and you could be yellow card. I think at one
BRIDGET
11:13
point in the evening, yeah, I think at one point in the evening, people were jealous. They were like, oh, my gosh, you got a yellow. I don't have a yellow. But you have one, so I'm going to get one, too, because I want to be like you. I don't know. That's how I felt it. I mean, obviously they weren't, but it was just like, oh, my gosh, just stop it. Just stop it and stop. Like, you just wanted to, like, be the mom. I know I texted you at one point was like, someone needs to sit these boys down and just stop it. Just like, shake them and say, like, get it together, bro. Get it together, because I don't know. And then if you look at who got the yellow cards versus who didn't, like, you were saying. What in the world was that? Like, Bronnico didn't even pull a yellow last night, maybe. Yes, he did, I think, but, like, everybody was getting Milan. I got a yellow card, you know, and Westwood even got the yellow card. And it was just like, what's up? Why? What what's going on? You know, I was waiting on DJ to pull I think he might have pulled yellow, too. I don't know. I think they'll I mean, if Pablo would have got one, I wouldn't have been surprised, either. They were all pulling the yellows. And Latanzo, I mean, I think he was next. You just didn't know. You never know. It was kind of
KARA
12:15
amazing because both of St. Louis's center backs got tactical yellows for disturbing our attack on goal. And then Swadowski didn't even mean to. At least it didn't seem like it, because I think he would have I don't know. That did not seem like it because we had plenty of people in between him and the box. I think that was like
BRIDGET
12:35
an iffy one right there.
KARA
12:37
And when I was listening to the radio calls by Willie P and Jessica Charman, there were many times where it was just like, what is going on? And they were just dumbfounded with some of the plays. And that one, the yellow card on Swedesky, like, I get it. Some people might not have called that some people would have. But the most weirdest one to me of the night was the one on Westwood, which I get. He's trying to come at Copetti. Copetti's got the yellow card for going down. He pulled one off of St. Louis. So the ref was giving St. Louis the yellow card for doing that. That was when one of the center backs'got it, and Westwood goes over there to talk to him, which he's the captain he's supposed to be, and he turns around and gets a yellow. I just thought that one maybe this has changed from last year, and maybe this is the point MLS is trying to make with their officiating. Like, this is different this year, and that's what you need to pay attention. But I didn't really feel like that was fair with how we had seen in the past. But I digress. I know a lot of
BRIDGET
13:40
people were talking in the social media world afterwards, and we're upset that our players did go to the officials so much. Did you see a problem with that? I mean, at one point, I just wanted our guys to stop talk, like, just get out of the official space, go back to play and focus on the game. I know you're mad. Just do it. Because every time you turn around, enzo was in the ref face. Even Westwood was where Swedesky was. It was like, just get out of his face. Just get out of his face and play. But, I mean, do you think that it was warranted that they were doing that? Or do you think we were a little too much like we went too far?
KARA
14:15
So with the officiating, I mean, as a fan, of course I was frustrated. I was super frustrated. Don't even talk to me about last night in the moment. I needed a full 24 hours almost to calm down. But that's fine. That's what it's here for. And I re watched it back and there were moments. At times it just didn't feel fair. I think to me in the shoulder plays, how sometimes we got called for shoulders and saying Lewis did not or they would do a dangerous tackle. 1s That someone would go down for more frequently. Now they got a few yellows for those, but they just felt more dangerous on point. 1s I mean, we knew they were going to play
BRIDGET
15:00
like this. Yeah. What about the one that they didn't call the penalty that even Latanzio was saying that should have been against Enzo? When you rewatched that, what did you think about that?
KARA
15:10
I think there was an angle that we should have seen. I wanted to see from the right side something that direction because I felt like he did get like triple teamed there. The argument that the announcers made of was, of course, that Enzo was already going down when that happened. And I think if he got clipped, I don't know that they showed it from the two angles that they showed us on the TV. So in that one, I think you were right to be mad at the moment. I think the thing that they should have done for that was at least given Laddy. 1s Maybe this is the fourth official talking to 1s the sideline official talking to the coaches. That's the one that they can talk to. But maybe if they would have seen him go over to the VAR with some things and maybe that's the point with these ones that make you just straight up heated and your players don't understand what those calls are, especially in key, key moments for like, penalties. Why can't they just go to the VAR for that? And maybe I'm being naive and shouldn't be, but I felt that would have gone a long way to making the players less frustrated and felt like they were being heard. But also some of those things, like I said, the physicality was higher. We knew that going into it, that they play like the Red Bulls. They play with a very physical attitude and it felt like they came out the bat pretty dangerous and there's like a dangerous tackle or two that come at the beginning on St. Louis that don't get yellow cards and that later on in the match get yellow cards. That they so we get them and it doesn't feel as fair because it felt like some of their some of their things just felt more dangerous than, than what we did to them. Especially that what is it when Shiny Sheikhi trips and or, you know, he gets he gets taken down by one of them. Yeah, they got the ball. I think it
BRIDGET
17:12
was like right out of the beginning. Yeah,
KARA
17:14
yeah. And there's other things, I think that just made some of those just really hard. And it didn't seem as even in some of those moments, but when you looked at the pattern overall, you saw them. But I think in the moment, the players were frustrated that they weren't being heard, they were not being protected by the ref. And I think that was part of the problem. And especially the thing I want to call out, I think today, especially with this, is Enzo Confetti had a goal, but he did not have a great game with his composure. And this is what he needs to get right. He is coming from another league. He's coming from another country into a new system, new league, new players, new officiating, and he doesn't know and new language, which might be hard to communicate into the ref at that time. He's just going to get upset. And that's maybe that's why you're seeing him be so animated with some of these calls. But I feel like he is the man who cries wolf at this point, and he needs to stop. And I don't say this out of upsetness, out of love, because we saw Swederski do the same thing last year, him and Yosuak. I feel like with coming from Poland and Greece and their experiences, they're going to try and do things that they were able to do in the last league can't do here. Capti hasn't gotten that message yet, and he needed to get that yesterday, especially with him being in the box on those corners. We lost like five minutes because of that stupidity. Now, I'm not blaming that all on him by any means, but I will say, I think Capti, he needs to gain his composure. He needs to gain the right attitude for MLS. And I think someone needs to get him this message that maybe he needs to go and watch some of Sudarsky's moves last year to help him understand that he needs to play differently in those moments and he needs to call. 2s When it's actually worth it. You saw Westwood choose that moment. He did not make a big deal in the box at the end when he seemed to trip and you didn't saw him try to do that. That was on purpose to not draw another yellow.
BRIDGET
19:31
Yeah, well, I think like you said, it's going to take him a minute to get to figure out the league, how the reps really work here. 2s Swadowski still needs to work on that too. And having them two together, I think they feed off each other and that needs to be worked on too. Like if one of them is getting amped up, the others amped up. Then we have all of them amped up and they can't even speak the same language. So we're amped up all over the place and we're just topsy turvy out there and Westwood is trying to calm them down. I saw Westwood push them back a lot and it's a lot. I wanted go ahead and give in props though. He did have a great header into the goal yesterday. Beautiful. It was awesome. I thought that was nice. And when he does make those great plays and when I feel like they will connect eventually and when they do, we are going to see him make a lot of goals. It's just to get there. I do want to also mention I like to pulling out the cute little things. Yesterday after his goal, when he did score, it was off of a cross from Swedirski. I believe it was a cross or a path. I get confused on what a cross is and what a path is. We going with a cross. So he crossed it from Swedeski, crossed it over and he headed it in. The first person after he scored that he would give a high five to was Swedesky. He wouldn't high five anyone else that came up to him and tried to hug him. I know Shanishiki was trying to get a hug from him. He wouldn't give anyone else a hug until he hid five Swederski. And I just think that I know that's the little things but to me that's just cute. That just shows that they are trying to work together as a team. I like to say teamwork makes the dream work and he was just wanting to show, hey, I appreciate you doing that. I think that a lot of times those two know that they both want to score and the way that Latanzia put them in that lineup yesterday, they have to work together. They realize we can't fight each other over this. Let's work together. And if we work together, I think they're going to be an awesome force to reckon with once they actually get that chemistry together. 1s Anyway, that was my cuteness I think that's about the only cute moment I found out of the whole freaking thing yesterday. But there you go. That's my cute moment of the match. Yeah.
KARA
21:35
So I thought our front floor had a lot more chemistry this time. I did think we played more as a team. We did. That was one of the things last week that we didn't do as well, that we played as individuals.
BRIDGET
21:48
Yeah. Camille did really great yesterday. He decided set or I don't know if he decided or it just worked out that way, but it seemed like he was making very smart decisions. He wasn't just trying to be the ball hog. He was actually trying to make passes when it needed to. There was one pass that veronica did backpass to josiah, and I thought that was awesome, too. I love seeing backpasses. It just amazes me that people do that. So I think that, like you said, camille did well last week, but a lot of people were very critical of him. But this week I actually saw that camille did come back and he showed up. I think other than pablo, he was probably the only other person out there that I can honestly say he didn't make the biggest mistakes ever. Oh,
KARA
22:28
and veronicao. Yes. Brunico was solid. Yeah. So yoswiak, let me go back to him for a second. We saw him do just so much better. Dribbles, passes, crosses, like he was just so much more consistent. And we saw him actually make plays, make dribbles into the box, be that dynamic player we know and love. And maybe that's because of just a different game that st. Louis played and he got freed up perhaps a little more than what new england had had on him. But we saw a different commo, and I want to see that again. I want that to come to atlanta. Please. Please do that's. The common we want to see now, he didn't get there was times where he was available, I think, for a pass into the box to do a shot, and that didn't happen for him. And so I still feel like there's some things where we're not making the shots or making the passes when we need to be, and that's going to happen. But good on him for being in that space to be available for that. Yeah, I think that and for people that think that lady is not going to start camille, you can go ahead and get over that. He's going to start camille
BRIDGET
23:40
pretty much every lineup.
KARA
23:41
So that second goal, which is the header on twoywoma. Listen, I know that this is. 2s Bizarre and doesn't matter and happens every game that there's something stupid. But there is a point at the 38th minute ish 39th minute, because I'm really bad about
BRIDGET
24:02
minutes where
KARA
24:04
because we get the goal at the 41st minute, and it's in that run up to that goal, okay, the ball goes out on a St. Louis player, and then they get the throw in. That's true. I did see that one. I did see that. I did see that. So it's kind of like, gee, oh, to wish upon a star and have that actually go the other way, and maybe we wouldn't have done that goal. Think how different life would have been, right? We're in fantasy world, and this is not where we
BRIDGET
24:41
can live. No, we can't. And then on that note, in my fantasy world, I wanted Shinoshiki to start, and let's go back and rewind that fantasy, and let's have Shinoshiki just be a super sub from now on. I'm going to go ahead and tell you that you were correct, that I love Shinoshiki. He's great, but he does so much better as a super sub. Sorry, buddy. I'll hug you all day long. But yeah, you got to be a super or so from now on.
KARA
25:07
Okay? So I'm going to not disagree, but not also agree either on this one. So when he gets that foul and hurts his shoulder pretty bad, right? Like, that seemed to bend his arm back really in a really weird way, right. Something I thought maybe, okay, he could have been holding back some injury there. But also, I feel like. 1s With Swederski being on the right. And the whole point, I think, Wild theory is that he was there to draw the defenders, leaving Swedesky more open, and so not as triple teamed. And so it's okay for Shinyushigi to be more triple teamed, because I feel like he sometimes can get out of those moments differently and draw those fouls, which he was doing in many ways. Yeah. So? I don't know. I mean, I do think that at the half time mark, he has just lost his composure, definitely after that goal and the non penalty. And, yeah, he does. He gets frustrated. It gets to
BRIDGET
26:12
him. I think he looked tired. I mean, I know that they all have great endurance, but I thought he kind of looked a little tired. And I think he has really great bursts of energy, great bursts of making plays. And like you said last week, that was one of your things that Gains did not see that out of Gains last night, by the way, but he didn't have a lot of chances. But I just
KARA
26:33
think he's nine minutes, right?
BRIDGET
26:35
But hey, lady Sub. Woo woo. Sub, lady sub. But back to Shinoshiki, I think he did a great job. I think he will develop into that position. But right now, I just don't see him as someone that can go in at the beginning and last a good 60, 75 minutes. And I think from someone in that position, that's what you need and what you want, and we have other guys. We have other guys that can do it. Nuna to be fair, neither one of them have been really given that time to get those 60, 75 minutes. So, I mean, yes, we would like to see it, but I don't feel like it's fair, and I don't feel like I'm just doing this because I do love Shin. Shegi I feel like that he pulled him out at the right time. Possibly he needed to pull him out just a little bit before because he was getting extremely frustrated with the tugging, with the fouling, with the not getting a call, with the stomping on his foot, I think, at one point. And he didn't get anything. 1s And then he was just like, I am tired of this. And he lost it.
KARA
27:38
And that was the right call to pull him out. He was not the only one to get that frustrated, and I understand. So I'm really glad that he did pull those Subs on when he did, because we knew that it was like, okay, hold it together, people.
BRIDGET
27:53
Last thing we wanted was another yellow card on these guys, and then get a red and then be out there with nine guys. 1s We didn't need we didn't or ten guys, right? We didn't need that. I just kept seeing that happen. I kept saying, oh, my gosh, here we go. But anyway, we're not going to harp on the bad things. We're going to talk about the positive things. Yeah.
KARA
28:13
So what did you think about him bringing on Nuno for Shinishiki and then Vargas for Swedeski? Which Swede ski got pulled out at the same time. 1s Typically one of them has been our Cam. So that left Nuno the option to be the new Cam. I don't
BRIDGET
28:31
know what La Chunzi was thinking last night. Lady was thinking, but we got to get Nuno out there more. I know Nuno. I think he made a couple of mistakes last night as well. But Nuno, he wants to make things happen. He's an
KARA
28:43
excellent shot. Didn't make it.
BRIDGET
28:45
Yeah. And he wants to make things happen. You can see it in his head. You can see him thinking about at it. You can see him. He's all over the field. You never know whether he's going to left, right. Last night he was camp, so that put him right there in the middle. But he's wearing there's one
KARA
29:00
point where he was standing next to Pablo,
BRIDGET
29:02
right? There's one point where the
KARA
29:04
ball everyone is still down the pitch, and he's just like, Hi, Pablo.
BRIDGET
29:12
Hey. He takes that teamwork as a dream, work to reality. But I just think that you could put Nuno in earlier and then I don't know. I just think he deserves to start. I don't know what he's got to do. I don't understand it. I know Latanzia goes off practices something during the week, so I just need Nuno to step it up during that week, do something so that Latanzia puts you on to start. Or maybe I need to call lady daddy and give him a little phone call. And then I thought when he put games or you're talking about Vargas, we haven't got the games yet. He put Vargas in. Vargas is great. I wasn't a big Vargas fan at first this year. I was more of a game fan. When Vargas gets out there, he has some plays, and he's like, got to spark about him. You see it and I don't know, it's like electricity, and it makes the other guys it gives the other guys a little bit more of a pump up and say, hey, he's out there, and he's like, let's do this. I don't think he says it mentally, but his attitude, I think that boosts all the other guys up, and I could just see it when he gets on the feet field. So I don't know, maybe he should start too. Yeah. Vargas and Santos had excellent work rate for coming in when they did. That was the right call, and they did a great job while they were out there. They had a really excellent cross from Vargas to header by Santos, and because Roman Berkeley is such a good keeper, that it did not go in, and I wish it did. And that's the kind of hard part, right? Like at the something like that right around there for a while, it is just, again, the ping pong match. We could not settle the ball. We could not play our game. We could not play with composure as much. Even when they came in, there was flashes of that, but it felt a lot of, like, just ricocheting the ball back and forth, fourth of nothing, or just 1s misses. It felt like those first ten minutes where it was just kind of like, not anywhere. And in those final moments. 1s When he took Westwood off, which was shocking. That's what you were bringing to a moment ago for Gaines. So he pulls out the captain, leading captain to Bronco, which is great, awesome. Called that. Yeah. And 1s brings in Gaines, which did you see when he passed a piece of paper to someone? I'm assuming it was Vargaswood, but I couldn't see see who he handed it because of the camera angle. But he hands a piece of paper off when Gaines did
KARA
31:51
Gains. When he comes in, he hands it to a player on the field, which was just I mean, so you got to think that was a message from Latanzio to someone and I don't know whose arm gets in the shot. That would be interesting if someone can tell me that.
BRIDGET
32:06
We got to go back and see if we can see that on the rematch.
KARA
32:09
Yeah, I documented it when I saw it last night and when I rewatched it today. 1s Yeah, I don't know what that was about, but it was like, again, the nine minutes left that Gaines played. So I don't know if it was 81st minute or something like that, but
BRIDGET
32:25
I think at that point it was just to keep Westwood from potentially getting another yellow card. I don't think he was going to get one because Westwood was being calm, but I think that might have been what it was. I can't see why Latanzio would put Gains in for Westwood. It wasn't like Gains going to come in and make that big. I mean, I love Gains, too, but that's not even comparable to me,
KARA
32:46
I think, because Westwood was getting frustrated again. And not only that, but at that point, we knew we were going to lose a match. Right. It's three up to one. The Milanda gaffe had happened. I'm so sorry, Audi. I think you'll never be doing that again. And he's a young CB, right.
BRIDGET
33:05
And I'm tired of people giving him a hard time about his performance last night. He was no worse than anyone else on that field. No one was bad. We have to get this out of our head that we can go out here and say all this about these players. They get paid to play, of course, and they're entertainers, but they're human beings, too. And none of us that are sitting at home talking or typing on a keyboard could do what they do. So until we can, I think we need to take a step back. And especially for someone that's 21 years old who's out here playing in the MLS for his like this. I know he played a couple of games last year, but this is like his first real 1s season. And then he's put in that position to where probably one of his mentors, Anton, is gone and he's got to play. I mean, he has to make these decisions and he's got a lot of pressure. And then after Bill did that, they already had a lot of pressure. So I saw it unfolding when it happened, but at the same time, yeah,
KARA
34:01
you could see it on his face. Milanda reacted. He saw it the second it left his foot, and he went right up to his face and put his hands up to his face and just was in horror. That is what has happened. And so you're you knew he just wanted to be swallowed up by the ground. But you know what? 1s Props to Milanda. He did not let that get to him. No. And he had gotten he had taken a knock earlier in the match.
BRIDGET
34:28
He already got a yellow card. I think
KARA
34:30
he got a yellow card, and then that happened. And you know what? If you throw out those things, he's fine. You know, like, he did good, and he kept his composure after that moment, and as did Cisnega. That shows character. That shows a lot of character. And that's what you want. You want them to still have and keep that composure in that environment, which had to be really rough, right?
BRIDGET
34:52
Because I could have seen some of these goalies that are not Pablo that get really angry with their team if this had happened. Like, really angry with their team. Yeah, I've seen some of these goalies show face, and the fact that Pablo kept it cool. I know a lot of people wanted Pablo to control the box a little bit more, to take more command, but I think he did well. He kept his composure. I mean, if you saw the look on his face, you were like, oh, okay, I get you. I feel you, bro. But he kept it cool. And then Milanda, I think even the commentators were talking about, milanda is going to be one of those guys that we may not have next year because he might get caught up to the U 22. They're
KARA
35:34
right. He's already had two offers on the table for Siri, and
BRIDGET
35:38
if he continues to do what he's doing, they're saying he could get, like, three times what he gets for us. So we need to be appreciating what we have. 1s Right now and stop nitpicking these guys. Like, okay, that's what we do in our podcast. But, like, let's not get too cheap picky with them. I
KARA
35:52
think I just want to say just a few more things. One, I thought Bronnico did did well for not working in that position. You saw him weirdly come and cover midfield some of the time, and I'm not quite sure why. Some, you know, stats after the thing gave him such a low rating, except that maybe you didn't see him do as many tackles. But he did really well, so I don't know that I can fault him for that.
BRIDGET
36:16
I think he can play any position. Yeah, you could put Brunico in at any position, and I think he would excel at it. I think someone said that, Veronica, we knew last year that he could do well with the midfield. That was a good spot, that he was grind and that he was doing the best he could. But through the offseason and his grind set and what he's been doing, you can now see that he's gotten better at all the aspects of soccer. He's gotten to the point where it's not just, I'm just a midfielder, and I'm going to be a midfielder. You can put me anywhere on this pitch, and I'm going to make an impact. And I just think that says a lot for a person and says a lot about his mindset. And if we could get everyone on the team on that mindset, we could totally win some cups. But we got to get there. Yeah.
KARA
37:02
And that's, I guess, if you get to quote my Queen's Wrath here, mine would be composure of the team at moments as a whole. I don't know that I can call out any specific one person like last week and say, you need to do better, although I think there's probably multiple. Whether we'll see them next week is something else. But I think that they needed to do better with composure, especially Copetti, you need to know what to say and how to act with those attitudes in the right moments, and those were the wrong ones a lot of those times. And again, lady afterwards said that he had gotten injured, came in, and his leg was gashed from something that either did not get called. 2s I don't know.
BRIDGET
37:59
I think that was from the one that lady said should have been a penalty. He said his ankle was swollen, like, it was really bad. And I can't even believe if it was what lady said, that he even continued to play.
KARA
38:09
But then he got that other knock around the 40, you know, 40 something minute mark. And it's hard to tell because he got two of them and he had an injury before he came here anyway. Like, when Latanzio it down to see him play at Rossine Racing. When Latanzo did go down there, that was the game that he was at. He got hurt. So he's coming off of an injury already. I don't know if it's the same leg ankle. I need to look into that. But he's already coming off that. So when he got hit again on that, I cringe every time because I don't know if he's, like, over exaggerating or not. He wants you to do that.
BRIDGET
38:42
Right. So 1s when Latanzi said that 2s I don't think Latanzia makes excuses for the guys, really. So I think maybe he really was injured and we just didn't see it. Who knows?
KARA
38:55
Yeah. So I think that's one of the things they need to work on for next time is composure, even in these moments, even in these high temper situations. Because I think it got to all of them at one point or another, and it's going to they're human. I mean, it got to us, right? We don't even play, right? It's. Right. 1s You should have seen me screaming at the TV last night. That's where we need to go up from. We need to work on that. We need to do better and not let these mistakes shake us. This is hard to take because this is game two and we know we are a better team than what we have shown and what the results have been. We've we know that and that's why we're so frustrated. 1s That's why we're so hard on the team right now is because we know they're better than this and we just want to see them succeed. And so when they're not, it's like a two edged sword that we unfortunately fell on last night. Right.
BRIDGET
39:58
You get so worked up because you want them to win so much. You put your heart like you just put so much into it. You care about them so much, and then all of a sudden when they lose, it's like, oh, my gosh, we know you can do better. So this is frustrating me. Like, why are you not doing better? Do I need to come out there and play and show you? But I can't. It's very frustrating. Well, on that note, I'm going to tell you what my Queen's Ire is, and I think it kind of segues into it. It's not as nice as you are.
KARA
40:26
Mine is going to be with the fans this week and it's not even about the week ahead of the game. It's been since the game last night, and I was really upset as well. Don't get me wrong. My daughter, we need to work on sportsmanship. She already turned the big TV off. Maybe watching on my phone for the last five minutes told me she's not going with me on Wednesday. Yes, we're definitely working on the sportsmanship here. So I get it. I totally get it. You want your guys to win and then when you filled, like, they didn't put everything in it that they could do, then you're angry. And there were so many people angry. But I'm so frustrated. Like, this is a team. These are real people. And if any of them read what's on social media. 1s I mean, what can we say? And it goes back to saying, like, if we're a fan of the team or not, we all like this team, or we wouldn't even care. We wouldn't be worked up about it or anything. But let's stop saying fire lady after two games. Okay, first of all, he just got his contract at the end of December. They're not firing him after two games. Latandu had nothing to do with our guys making mistakes yesterday on that field, right? Yes. He changed up his lineup, and he didn't get it right. Okay, well, guess what? After the first game 1s and a lot of other people were saying, changed his lineup up, so guess what? He changed the lineup up, and we're not happy because it didn't work out. But after I listened to Westwood's press conference, if you haven't listened to that, you might want to go listen to it. Westwood makes a lot of sense. He's very calm, and I could listen to him all day, all night. But he said, the players know their responsibilities. They know how they messed up. They talked about that in the locker room, and it's going to stay in that locker room with them. So they know what they did. They're beating themselves up. The last thing they need to do is see the fans online or out in public just screaming, London, you saw doing the same thing, right?
BRIDGET
42:22
Or, Latanzio, you need to be fired. Or how dare you call him lady daddy. Because he just sucks. Like, come on, let's stop it. Let's stop fighting with each other. Composure
KARA
42:33
for us too, right?
BRIDGET
42:35
Let's stop fighting with each other. It's been two games. We have 32 more to go. And I know my kid has played a lot of soccer games. Yours probably has two where she hasn't won a game our whole season. And that's not fun. It's not fun to go. It's not fun to sit there and cheer. But I'm there because I'm cheering on my kid, because I care about him and I want to. And I'm going to do the same for Charlotte C and want these guys to know we have their back. So my ire is with the fans. But then on that note, let's turn it around and come next Wednesday, next Saturday at noon, I want everybody to get out there and let's show this team that we still believe in them. Yell, cheer, scream, do whatever we got to do, because I do think that if we get out there, we rally behind them, we stay behind them. They're going to show us that they've got it. They just need us to show them that we've got their backs no matter what.
KARA
43:25
As moms, we would be telling our children, and again, these men are not our children by any means, but we would be telling them in the smart mom wisdom that we have, we would be going, this is a character building moment and this sucks, but 1s you're going to have to let this go. You're going to have to learn from it, and you're going to have to do better next time. Only you can change that result. That's the message we as fans need to be bringing to this team, because we love them. All
BRIDGET
43:54
your big boy pants. We would
KARA
43:55
not be doing this if we did not love them. And I understand from some people's perspectives that if they've traveled a long way, they've spent a lot of money, they're frustrated, they're not getting what they see as they're worth. I get that. But again, they're human beings, and it's not like we just we do believe in them and we believe they have the good results that we can get, that if they play as a team, they keep their heads about them. These mistakes aren't going to happen week to week, and if they are, we need to be having a different conversation a few weeks from now.
BRIDGET
44:29
Right. I don't think like, if this is continuing, then yeah, but last night I didn't see any other players get out there and not put their heart and soul on that field. Week one, I could have said maybe he. But last night I really think they all fought for they really wanted to win. They really wanted to do it. And I think maybe the fact that they wanted it so bad, that created even more mistakes. I think as soon as they break that seal of winning and they realize, hey, we got it, I think that's going to build their confidence and then I think it's going to go from there. We have to remember, we have a very young team. We have a couple of people that are over 30, but for the most part, most of these guys are young and they haven't played in the MLS. So let's give them a break. Let's let them play, but at the same time, let's be there for them and show them that we're going to support them come win, lose or draw.
KARA
45:17
Yeah. And seeing as we are playing Atlanta this coming weekend, I'm going to need Anton to come help us instead of Atlanta the last two games. I'm just saying let's hope we have a good game against Atlanta. I know some people want to frame it as our rivals, but listen, we're all on the side of Anton, so I think I'd like to remember that. I mean, again, we're here to play a game, we're here to play good football. But I think this is also a coming together moment to remember him and have him be with us in that stadium and just show love to both his family and him and his memory.
BRIDGET
45:55
Right. Especially to each other. I'm not sure what's going to go on in the supporter group section this weekend. No matter what it is, I'm sure they've worked it out. Let's all get along. Let's not get crazy. I do think that they're going to play Velra for sure. So looking forward to that. The clap at the five minute mark will be great. I'm sure that DJ Fannie Mae is going to be there pumping the beats before the game. I also think that it's going to rain, so please make sure you take your little towel like I advised last week, take your towel because it's supposed to have rain showers. I think that's the thing that's our extra player, our 12th player every week it's going to be rain in Charlotte. So just get
KARA
46:36
prepared. 13th then
BRIDGET
46:38
13th unlucky.
KARA
46:39
13th instead of anyway, we're not going to note 13th is true. Wait, I got one happy note. So when we held off New England last week, pretty much until the 89th minute they beat, was it houston last night. 30. So I just want to say we we didn't do that there. And looks like they had a good match yesterday. So here's to hoping that Charlotte has a good match this next time. Please, I need it.
BRIDGET
47:12
We do. We do. On that note, we hope everybody has a great week. Hope you enjoy enjoy this and stay safe.